1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates handbags and purses, and in particular to an invertible handbag and method of use.
2. Background of the Invention
Handbags and purses have long been used to carry incidentals such as make-up, documents, chewing gum and snacks, handkerchiefs, tissues, eye glasses, money, small flashlights, car keys, house keys, cell phones, pepper spray, etc. Back in biblical days, it was noted that traitors were paid with purses full of silver coins.
One on-going problem associated with use of purses and handbags being used to carry a miscellanea of small items is the dreaded “disappearing item” syndrome. This occurs when a small item such as a set of house keys descends to the bottom of a purse full of other things, and becomes difficult to find. It may be necessary to up-end the purse, dump out the entire contents, and search through the contents in order to finally find the elusive keys.
The procedure of having to dump out the contents of purse or handbag onto a flat surface in order to find a small item which has migrated to the bottom of the bag presents a number of problems. Contents of the purse may be damaged during the “dumping out” operation, especially if they are delicate, such as eye glasses. Another problem is finding an appropriate flat surface upon which to dump the contents of the purse or handbag—the kitchen table is not always readily available for this purpose.
Another problem lies in that not only must the contents be dumped out and searched through, but the contents must then be re-inserted into the purse or handbag—overall, a labor-intensive exercise. In addition, the very action of dumping out the handbag may have the effect of re-positioning smaller items to the bottom of the pile once more, thus exacerbating the efforts to locate them.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a handbag or purse whose lower-most items can be searched without digging around in the purse or dumping its contents out. This could be achieved by providing a handbag with a first closure along a first mouth on its top, and a second closure along a second mouth on its bottom, both mouths permitting access to a handbag central compartment. This apparatus would permit a method of use including the steps of closing the first closure, up-ending the handbag, and opening the second closure in order to access items which were formerly bottom-most, but are now top-most by virtue of having up-ended the handbag.
Existing Designs
A number of approaches have been suggested to provide a handbag with opposite openings. Landis was granted U.S. Pat. No. 2,126,898 for a handbag which provided upper and lower closures, both zippers in this case. The upper zipper provided access to an apparently conventional handbag compartment, while the lower zipper provide access to a pair of secret compartments separated from the conventional handbag compartment by walls. While the Landis '898 handbag provided opposite closures, these did not access a common receptacle, thus rending the Landis '898 handbag unsuitable for the instant purpose of accessing the bottom of a handbag's central compartment by inverting the handbag.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,910,560 was granted Dulin for a suitcase having opposite, openable sides. While this invention taught opposite opening sides, both giving onto a single central compartment, there were several problems associated with this design. On problem was the lack of means to hold the zippers closed, which is desirable to prevent inadvertent zipper opening and unwanted spillage of the contents. Another problem lies in the absence of a reversible shoulder strap or other holding means attached with swivels which would tend to hold the handbag in a given orientation, be it right-side-up or inverted.